The New York State Commission Against Discrimination indicated today that it would appeal against a decision by Supreme Court Justice Kenneth S. MacAffer in which he ruled that the phrase “serving Christian clientele since 1911” was not evidence of discrimination. The decision was issued last week.
This phrase appeared in resort advertisements promoting Trowbridge Farm, an inn at Kyserike, New York. The commission ordered the resort to stop using the phrase. It issued this order May 11 on the complaint of Robert E. Sachs of the Bronx and the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.
Trowbridge Farm appealed this order and was upheld by Justice MacAffer, who said that the words might be called descriptive of the clientele of the resort but did not “suggest that other than Christians are unwanted or excluded.”
The opinion of the Justice, which is now being appealed, cited advertisements reading “Italian cuisine.” “French cooking” and “Kosher diet observed” and asked rhetorically whether these “would establish that the author was engaging in a discriminatory phrase.”
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